1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inventory control system where each item of the inventory is tagged with an anti-collision, radio frequency identification apparatus, and the tags are interrogated and read by an interrogator/reader.
More particularly, the present invention relates to an inventory control system where an interrogator/reader supplies energy to an anti-collision, radio frequency identification apparatus or tag affixed to each item of the inventory and having a unique programmable identifier and a digital processing unit which stores data sufficient to associate a given tag identifier with a particular item of inventory and is capable of identifying inventory items outside of the range of the field generated by the interrogator/reader.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various inventory control systems have been described and implemented in the market place such as systems for keeping track of items used in games or sports such as golf, skiing or the like or for keeping track of children or any other item or animal in a given situation. Such systems are described in various U.S. Pat. Nos.: 5,870,023; 5,844,483; 5,841;352; 5,757,271; 5,689,240; 5,661,460; 5,646,593; 5,565,845; 5,557,259; 5,525,967; 5,493,274; 5,289,163; 5,028,909; 5,001,461; 4,973,944; 4,922,229; 4,899,135; 4,489,314; 4,535,322; and 4,042,918, incorporated herein by reference.
Although such systems provide some tracking and protection against loss of an item, such systems do not provide efficient multi-item tracking, loss or misplacement protection. Thus, there is a need in the art for a system which can identify and keep track of multiple items and alert a user when items are lost or misplaced.